“It’s a no-frills flight,” Donovan said, ignoring the snark. “We’re going to have to serve ourselves.”
Lani paused as she buckled her seat belt. “Don’t mind if I do,” she murmured, leaning over to give him a kiss. “Whatever can I do to thank you for including me in this adventure?”
“I’ll accept that as a down payment,” he said, brushing his thumb against her lips. “We’ll discuss how you can pay off the rest of the debt once we get back home.”
Lani wondered briefly if Donovan had noticed his slip of the tongue in calling the beach house home. Deciding that this was no time to bring up what was a perilously personal question, she nodded.
“Whatever you think is fair,” she agreed, as the pilot climbed into the cockpit of the small four-seater plane. Within minutes, they were airborne.
“You know, of course, that your girlfriend’s marrying an idiot,” Donovan said as they raced through the night. Outside the windows, the sky was filled with brilliant, twinkling stars, and down below, the silver moon-gilded water seemed to go on forever.
“I’ll admit Ford never seemed overly brilliant,” Lani agreed. “But don’t you think you’re being a bit hard on him?”
“Not nearly as hard as that syndicate boss is going to be if we don’t get to him first.”
“You said he was coming from the mainland?”
“From Arizona,” Donovan said. “Joe Capelli’s a ruthless Mafia don who grew up in the Phoenix Scorsese and Marino crime families and has been moving north into Nevada, Idaho, and the Pacific Northwest and Canada. We’ve been trying to get something concrete on him for months while I worked on a money-laundering case with Tess.
“We put away one of the low-level guys, but we couldn’t get any further than that, which frustrated the hell out of Tess, who was prosecuting both cases. I sure as hell never expected to nail the guy down here.” He shook his head. “Funny thing is, the family had apparently written the barge off as a loss years ago.”
“Until Ford got drunk and told everyone in The Blue Parrot that the Wainani was going to make him wealthy,” Lani guessed.
“Got it on the first try,” he said.
“But why would a mobster care that much about the money? Granted, it’s a lot to most people, but surely it’s not even a day’s income for him.”
“Those guys don’t like losing. They’re also greedy as hell. I’ve seen unlucky gamblers beaten to death for a lot less. It’s no accident that Phoenix was considered the most violent city in the country when the Italian, Irish, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, and Russian gangs were battling over territory there in the early 2000s.”
“I’d honestly hate your job,” she said. “But it’s no wonder the FBI wants you.”
He wrapped his arms around her. Right then he didn’t want to think about going to the Feds. He didn’t want to think about Britton, the crime boss, or the damn pirated payroll. He only wanted to remember how perfectly Lani Breslin fit in his arms.
“Look at those stars,” he murmured. “You never see stars like that in the city. Too many lights.”
“And smog,” she whispered as she rested her head on his shoulder and tried to relax. “How much longer?”
“Not long. There’s an old navy landing field dating from World War II on the island; these days it’s used to deliver supplies to a small group of Coast Guardsmen stationed on the island to broadcast signals to ships and planes to help them plot their positions.
“As soon as we land, I’ll go in and get Britton. The whole thing should be over in ten, fifteen minutes. Then you can start thinking about ways to pay off your debt.”
“Donovan,” she began hesitantly, “about my staying on the plane—”
“No.” He gripped her chin, holding her gaze to his. “No arguments, Lani. We made a deal, and I have every intention of holding you to it.”
She reached up, rubbing at the deep lines that bracketed his mouth. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re very sexy when you’re doing your alpha male thing?”
“Dammit, Lani—”
“Perhaps if we discuss this reasonably, we can find a middle ground.”
“After this is over, we can discuss it all you want. For the rest of the night, I’m the boss.”
Lani recognized the tone instantly. Further arguing was going to get her nowhere. “Of course, Donovan,” she answered mildly. Almost, as hard as it was, submissively. “Whatever you say.”
He was looking at her suspiciously when the pilot called out that they’d reached their destination. As they landed, Lani’s heart felt as if it might leap right out of her chest.
Donovan didn’t trust Lani’s atypical acquiescence, but short of tying her up, he didn’t know what to do except give her one last warning. “Remember, whatever happens, you are not to leave this plane,” he ordered gruffly.